A Style Guide for Policies and Procedures?
| by Steve Flick | ||||
A reader recently asked if we could talk about writing a policies and procedures “style guide”. As a matter of fact, many style guides already exist, so why bother to come up with one of your own? Your situation isn’t so unique.
Bizmanualz provides a style guide with its policy and procedure manuals. (It’s in the ”Manual Preparation” section, under “Your Manual” and “Effective Communication”.) It doesn’t break any new ground, but reinforces what you see in other style guides (Elements of Style, Chicago Manual of Style, etc.).
Why does — or why should — anyone use a style guide? Well, we use them to establish and preserve a preferred style of writing and/or layout. We use style guides to ensure consistency. It’s more economical to establish a documentation style and stick with it than to use a different style for every document.
In addition, the right style can help establish and reinforce your brand, though we’re not concerned about the brand internally. The consistency we’re looking for internally is that of behavior.
Written procedures are meant to ensure that the business processes they describe are carried out the same way every time, no matter who’s carrying out the procedure, or where or when.
Will a style guide help with that? It won’t hurt, though it really only scratches the surface. You don’t give a procedure to a trainee, tell them to read the procedure (or watch the video) over the weekend, and begin the process “for real” on Monday, do you? If you do, do you think the document’s style matters all that much to the employee?
Of course not! You may have them read/view the procedure first, but you have to show them – in a real or simulated work environment — how the procedure is carried out, then have them carry out the procedure themselves, gradually ramping up their productivity with their confidence level.
Therefore, the ultimate style guide is the user. If you get consistent results from your employees once they’ve been adequately trained — and you’re key performance indicators will tell you if that’s the case — your style meets the most important requirement. You’re achieving the desired result.
That’s not to say, “Forget style guides.” By all means, use them. Just don’t get hung up on them.
Now it’s your turn. Thoughts?
Categories:
Policies and Procedures • Procedure Review
Tags:
business processes • Employee Training • Policies and Procedures • process requirement • style guide • written procedures
Bizmanualz has been at the forefront of deploying business best practices since 1995 delivering Policies, Procedures and Forms; quality systems implementation; and strategic business process improvement to help business owners achieve the growth and expansion they envision.
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Originally published in 2010 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title A Style Guide for Policies and Procedures?. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com
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